


Remember

by JCapasso



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:27:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25056961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCapasso/pseuds/JCapasso
Summary: What if it really was Elena on the porch that night? If she had kissed Damon back? Can they figure out why her emotions are so jumbled up before it's too late?
Relationships: Elena Gilbert/Damon Salvatore
Comments: 16
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

“What are you doing here?” Elena asked confused as she walked up and saw Damon coming out of her house. It had been a very long day with the whole vampire round-up thing and she was exhausted. 

“A failed and feeble attempt at doing the right thing,” Damon sighed.

“Which was…” Elena asked, trying to figure out what he was up to.

“It’s not important,” Damon said with a twitch of an almost smile. “Let me take this for you.” He grabbed the garment bag from her and set it down.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile. Damon could be such a gentleman sometimes.

“You know, I came to this town wanting to destroy it, and tonight I find myself wanting to protect it…” Damon trailed off as he tried to pin down his train of thought. He always got like this when he was emotional which was usually why he tried to avoid people unless he was going to kill them. “How does that happen?” He took a deep breath. “I’m not a hero, Elena. I don’t do good. It’s not…in me.”

“Maybe it is,” Elena said softly. She’d certainly seen enough signs, even if he did tend to freak out and ruin it afterwards. 

“No,” Damon shook his head. “No, that’s reserved for my brother…and you, and Bonnie who even though she has every reason to hate me still…helped Stefan save me.”

“Why do you sound so surprised?”

“Because she did it for you,” Damon said moving towards her. “Which means that somewhere along the way…you decided I was worth saving and I wanted to…thank you…for that,” Damon said softly.

“You’re welcome,” Elena replied just as softly. She wanted to say more. How of course, he was worth saving and how could he not be, but her brain was somewhat short-circuited by his proximity. When Damon leaned forward, she almost wondered if he was going to kiss her, but then he kissed her cheek so sweetly. She could almost see the love in his eyes, and it took her breath away. Knowing that he loved her after Isobel spilled the beans was one thing, but seeing the proof so clearly was different. 

Damon could see something different in Elena’s eyes right now and he almost felt a spark of hope. Maybe he could have a chance. His lips lightly brushed hers, experimentally…testing the waters, and she responded. She leaned in for more even. His hands went to her cheeks and he kissed her, slow and deep, pouring every unspoken emotion he had into it, and hoping she understood. He was beyond irritated when the door opened and they were interrupted, but he let her go. What else could he do?

Elena gave Jenna a sheepish look, trying to resist the urge to continue clinging to Damon, and when Jenna said she should come inside, she knew an order when she heard one. She gave Damon one last glance before she grabbed her stuff and headed inside. “What are you doing?” Jenna asked the second the door closed behind her. 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Elena said as she headed upstairs. She didn’t even know herself. She was so confused. Nothing made sense anymore. 

Damon stood on the porch for a long moment. Long enough to hear Jenna’s question and Elena’s reply. He was still trying to convince himself that actually happened and he wasn’t just dreaming it. His hand reached up to touch his lips before he shook it off and left. 

Jenna followed Elena up to her room after a few minutes. “We need to talk about it, Elena. You can’t do this. You can’t be like this.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Elena asked wearily shoving her pillow over her face. “I don’t understand why I’m being like this. I don’t want to.”

“Then you need to make a choice. And do it fast. They’re brothers Elena. And from what you’ve said they already hate each other after their ex did the same thing you’re doing. Do you really want to be responsible for destroying their relationship for good?”

“No. I don’t. And I know everything you’re saying. I just…” Elena felt the tears welling up in her eyes. “I just don’t know how.” 

“Flip a coin if you have to Elena, but you can’t keep playing them both,” Jenna said seriously. “I’m not just trying to be hard on you, sweetie, but I know how you’re gonna feel when this blows up in all your faces.”

“I know. I’ll figure it out,” Elena promised, despite not having a clue how she would manage to do that. When she saw Damon at the Lockwood’s the next day, she split from Jenna and Jeremy and went to talk to him. When she saw how his face lit up when he saw her, she felt like crap, but it had to be said. “That kiss last night can’t happen again,” she told him regretfully. 

Damon’s face fell and he felt like his heart was breaking, but he managed a simple, “I understand.” She had said that she wasn’t Katherine and she wasn’t going to mess around with them both and apparently she had made her choice. All he could do from her is accept it. No matter how much it hurt. At least he’d gotten one kiss. He wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse. He had that memory to hold onto now, but now he knew what he was missing too. 

Unfortunately, neither of them realized that Stefan was nearby until he walked up. “You kissed?” he asked accusingly. 

Elena quickly told him, “He kissed me. I didn’t kiss him back. I would /never/ do that to you.” Even as she was saying it she didn’t know why and she hated herself for it. Both for lying to Stefan and for how much it would hurt Damon. 

Stefan narrowed his eyes at Damon, who nodded. “Yeah. She didn’t kiss me back. Shoved me away even,” he added his own lie, despite how much it hurt to do so. It wasn’t any worse than how he already felt. Stefan just nodded curtly and went to take a walk as Elena went inside to catch up with Jenna and Jeremy. She just couldn’t face either of them right this minute. 

Unfortunately, she didn’t get long before Bonnie was coming after her. It turned out Katherine was back in town and was trying to get back with Stefan. Elena could hear the hurt coloring Damon’s voice as he mocked Katherine trying to steal Stefan and how he’d tried to steal Elena so it was only fair. Between the tension rising between them, bringing to mind what Jenna said last night, and the fact that she was barely holding it together right now, she was quick to make her escape. 

Damon wished his brother would just fight him already. Give him some way to work out his pain. But, no. Instead he has to twist the knife even deeper by pointing out that he cared about Elena and saying that he wasn’t going to let Katherine get rid of the part of him that cared. Then, even worse, pointing out that they had to work together and not let Katherine come between them. He was glad when his brother walked off. At least then he could be alone in his misery. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be. When he got home Katherine was waiting for him and asking for a goodbye kiss. Like he would ever go there. He’d rather kill her after what she did to him. He considered it to. Right up until she was pinned under him and he realized that this might just be the closest he could ever get to Elena, so he gave her what she wanted and then some. He blamed Elena for what happened next when he pulled away to figure out where they stood. He practically begged Katherine to just tell him that he was wanted. Somehow. By someone. He could spend his life pretending if he had to, but he needed something at least. Something to hold on to. To know that he mattered. 

When she refused to give him even that, he wondered how much more of a beating his heart could take in one day. When she told him that she never cared about him and that it was always Stefan, he couldn’t even muster up the urge to kill her anymore. He gave up. He had gone from the highest of highs last night and the universe was making up for it now because the very idea of Damon Salvatore ever being happy was apparently laughable. So much so that he even had to be kicked while he was down just to prove it. He barely noticed Katherine leaving before he grabbed for the bottle. 

A few hours later, he found himself sitting in Elena’s room waiting for her. This was probably the stupidest thing he’d ever done. It was definitely the most pathetic. He was just drunk enough not to care.


	2. Chapter 2

Elena was getting ready for bed, trying to forget the awful day she’d had and the buried feelings that it stirred up. When she went back into her room, she jumped at the sight of Damon sitting on her bed. “You scared me.”

Damon turned to look drunkenly at her. “Just doing my part in the neighborhood watch,” he quipped.

“Thanks,” Elena said moving over to toss her towel in the hamper, not noticing that her door was still open and not realizing that Jenna was in her room across the hall and could hear every word. “For um…for looking out for us…for me.” God, there was so much more she wanted to say, but she didn’t even know where to begin. Or even if she could get the words out at all. 

“That’s me. Trusted bodyguard…calm in crisis,” he slurred.

“Have you been drinking?” she asked worriedly, noticing how off he was. When he held up his thumb and forefinger in a ‘little bit’ gesture that she knew was way under-exaggerated if his state was anything to go by, she started to get nervous. “And you’re upset. That’s…not a good combination.” She knew how he got and she just hoped that she could defuse him before anything bad happened. 

“No, I’m not upset,” Damon said swaying slightly. “Upset is an emotion specific to those who care.”

“Come on, Damon. That’s a lie. You care,” she said gently as her self-hatred welled up in her again. She had done this to him. She had been the one to push him so far. How could she be so stupid and heartless?

Jenna considered going to make Damon leave. It was late and he was drunk, but she knew that they needed to hash this out. She would intervene if it got out of hand though. She realized just how bad it was when she heard Damon say, “You would never kiss me back?” hurt lacing his voice.

“Damon…”

He ignored her and continued. “You don’t think that what we’ve been doing here…means something?” His face turned hard. “You’re the liar, Elena. There is something going on between the two of us and you know it.” He got up and walked towards her slowly. “And you’re lying to me. And you’re lying to Stefan. And most of all you’re lying to yourself,” he said desperately.

“I know!” Elena snapped as the tears sprang to her eyes again and he stopped in his tracks confused. “I know,” she said softer. “You think I like this? I hate it. I hate every bit of it. But I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s like…I know I don’t like Stefan, but I can’t stop myself from loving him anyway and every time I decide that I don’t or that I need to dump him, some voice in my head just insists that he is ‘everything I’m looking for’ which is stupid because he’s not, but I can’t fight it and I know I sound like a crazy person right now and I’m sorry, Damon,” she babbled as the tears fell down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I never want to hurt you, but I just can’t help it.” 

Damon felt like someone smacked him over the head with a baseball bat…a feeling he was more than familiar with incidentally…as her words registered in his drunken mind. “What is it that the voice in your head tells you?” he asked to be sure. 

“That’ he’s ‘everything I’m looking for’,” Elena said sadly. 

“Well…crap,” Damon sighed. There was a good chance that this was all his fault. And that she would hate him for it. He couldn’t just leave her like this though. 

“What?” she asked with a sniffle, seeing that something had dawned on him and if he had any idea why she felt like she was going insane, she desperately needed to hear it. 

“Okay, so first I need you to know that I never meant for this to happen, Elena, and I am so /so/ sorry. Please believe that,” Damon all but begged. 

“Okay…/you’re/ actually apologizing? Sincerely? That scares me a little bit,” Elena said warily. “What did you do?” 

“It’ll be easier to show you, but I’m gonna need you to take your necklace off first,” he said with a wince. 

“Why? So you can compel me?” Elena asked as her hand went protectively to her necklace. In the other room, Jenna smothered her gasp. Damon was a vampire? And that meant that Stefan probably was too? And Elena knew about it?

“No, so I can UNcompel you,” he told her. 

“You compelled me to love Stefan?” she guessed horrified. 

“What? No!” Damon shook his head. “No, what kind of masochist would I have to be compel that just to fall in love with you myself?” 

“Then what…?” 

“I honestly didn’t think this would happen, Elena. I was just trying to do something nice. I should have known better though. Trying to be nice always makes everything go wrong, but I just…”

“Damon!” she tried to pull him back to the conversation before he went off on a tangent. 

“I compelled you to get everything you were looking for out of life,” he told her. “And to forget meeting me since I was still kinda hiding at the time.” 

“And now you want to undo it?” Elena asked hopefully, wanting confirmation before she actually took her necklace off. 

“Of course I do. If I had realized that it was affecting you so much I would have a long time ago. I just thought at the most it might tilt chance a little more your way or give you the courage to go after what you wanted if it even worked at all. It wasn’t supposed to make you do anything or feel anything and especially not hurt you. I would never have wanted to hurt you, Elena.” 

Elena nodded and took her necklace off, setting it on her bedside table. “Okay then,” she sighed as she readied herself for this. 

Damon looked deep into her eyes and said, “Remember.” 

She swayed a bit as the compulsion broke and he reached out to steady her. Once the memory had settled in her mind, she looked back up at him getting lost in his eyes. God, everything made so much sense now and she knew exactly what she wanted. /Who/ she wanted. She stood up on her toes and pressed her lips to Damon’s as a hand went to his cheek. 

One of Damon’s hands went to her cheek as well as his other arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her close. He desperately hoped that this one was real. That the end of the compulsion meant that this could actually last. That he could keep it. Keep her. Because he didn’t think he could survive her turning on him again. 

Unfortunately, that was the cue for them to be interrupted again, as Stefan burst into the room. “What the hell?!” That time Jenna seriously did consider going in there. If two vampires broke into a fight with Elena in the middle, she could end up really hurt. She decided to wait though. At the first sign of violence she would go in there and get Elena out, but for the time being, she would rather see what happened. She could learn more if they didn’t know she was listening anyway. 

Damon expected Elena to jerk away from him and try to make excuses, but she didn’t. She did pull away, of course, but didn’t go far. “Stefan,” she gasped with a wince. “Let me explain.” 

Stefan grit his teeth. “You don’t need to explain, Elena,” he said with a cold look at his brother. “Where’s your necklace?” 

Elena’s eyes widened as Damon winced, both realizing what conclusion Stefan was jumping to. “Right here,” she reached out to grab it and put it back on. “But it’s not what you think.” 

“I know you might think that, Elena, but…”

“He just UNcompelled me,” Elena tried to explain. 

“So what? You’re telling me that he compelled you before to be with me and just undid it so now you want him? Do you realize how stupid that sounds?” Stefan asked incredulously. 

“That’s not how it happened,” Damon made his foray into the conversation, despite knowing that it wasn’t likely to do much good. “I met her almost a year ago and we talked and I compelled her to get everything she wanted out of life. I didn’t realize it would affect her like that until something she said tonight made it click in my head.”

“Undo all compulsions on her,” Stefan ordered his brother. That was the only way he would believe this. If he saw it for himself. 

Damon knew that it was necessary, so he took her necklace off gently and she allowed it, before he looked into her eyes and said, “Remember everything.” 

“There’s nothing else,” Elena told Stefan afterwards. 

“Affect her like what?” Stefan asked suspiciously, now that he finally believed it. 

Elena knew that this one was hers to answer. “It made me feel drawn to you even though I didn’t want to be. It made me…love you…even though I didn’t. I’m sorry, Stefan. I never meant to hurt you.”

“It’s not /your/ fault,” Stefan snapped, eyes going back to his brother. 

“He was just trying to do something nice,” Elena tried to get him to stop blaming Damon. 

“Of course, he was,” Stefan sneered. “And just like always, I end up paying for it. He doesn’t have to TRY to ruin my life, Elena. His very existence does that. I should have gotten the hell out of this town the second you showed up,” he snapped before he blurred away. 

Damon sighed heavily and shook his head. “Well…at least you won’t have to worry about the awkward ex encounters at school?” he tried to lighten the mood and find a bright side. 

“What do you mean?” Elena asked confused. 

“You heard him. He’s leaving town,” Damon shrugged. 

“Oh,” Elena simply said, turning that conversation back over in her mind. She could see where it was implied, but she didn’t think it was that definite. Damon knew his brother a lot better than she did though.


	3. Jenna Interlude

Part of Jenna felt bad for continuing to listen in, but her niece was consorting with vampires. While she wasn’t like her sister and brother in law in their thinking that all vampires were evil and should be eradicated, she still wouldn’t be a very good guardian if she didn’t at least make sure things were on the up. Who knew when and if she would get another chance at this again? She was relatively certain that Damon being drunk was the only way she had managed to get away with it this time. 

She had already learned a lot of valuable information anyway. First of all, the fact that Elena had a necklace that kept her from being compelled and then she remembered how insistent Elena was that she never take off the bracelet Elena gave her and wondered if it had the same protections on it. She smiled at that thought. It was nice to know that she was protected and that Elena cared enough to make sure that she was. Knowing why Elena had been acting the way she had helped and Jenna actually felt bad for being so hard on her now. Poor kid must have felt like she was going crazy. She was glad that was fixed. 

Yesterday she would have said that in the battle between Damon and Stefan for her heart she would be rooting for Stefan, but her tune changed abruptly tonight. She wondered if vampires were stuck at the same maturity level they were when they turned because Stefan’s reaction had been pure spoiled teenager tantrum. Someone as old as he apparently was should be beyond such reactions, but Damon had handled things relatively well. For someone who was drunk and confused and heartbroken at least. He realized he made a mistake, apologized, and fixed it. He hadn’t even risen to his brother’s temper. 

Damon clearly cared a great deal about Elena. That much was evident in the way he was so quick to fix the problem, so heartbreakingly apologetic about causing it, and he had even said point blank that he was in love with her. That wasn’t even taking into consideration the initial cause of the problem. Even when they first met he had cared enough to want her to get everything she wanted out of life. That said something. So yes. She was definitely on Damon’s side now. She still had about a hundred questions, but that could wait until she managed to corner Elena tomorrow.


	4. Chapter 4

“I’m sorry, Damon,” Elena said sadly as she sat down on the bed. 

“What are /you/ sorry for?” Damon huffed a laugh. 

“Because I hurt you earlier,” she told him. “So much so that you felt the need to get drunk and come confront me about it. Not that I’m complaining about the outcome of course, but still…”

“That wasn’t all you, Elena,” Damon admitted as he sat next to her. “I saw Katherine earlier too.” 

“Oh? What happened?” Elena asked worriedly. 

“She told me she was leaving town and wanted to say goodbye…wanted a goodbye kiss. I threatened to kill her instead, but then we fought…” Damon took a deep breath. He didn’t really want to admit this, but he wanted her to blame herself even less, so it was necessary. “And then next thing I knew we were half undressed and well…”

“I get the picture,” Elena said with a wince. She didn’t need to hear more. 

“Right…but once my brain caught up with what I was doing, I pulled away and asked her…well beat around the bush really, but she knew what I was trying to ask and told me point blank that she never loved me. Never cared about me. That it had always been Stefan. And then she left. And that’s when I hit the bottle.” 

Elena sighed and looked away. “I’m not Katherine, Damon. I mean…I know I look like her, but I can’t just be a replacement or…”

“Elena, no,” Damon said quickly reaching his hand to her cheek and turning her to look at him. “No. You are /not/ a replacement. If anything it’s the opposite. The entire time she was kissing me, all I could think was that it was the closest I could get to /you/.” 

“So it is still my fault then,” she pointed out the flaw in his logic. 

Damon huffed a laugh. “No, Elena. It’s my fault. That stupid compulsion. I did it to myself and I hurt you just as much as I hurt myself and I will never forgive myself for that.” 

“Damon, don’t,” Elena shook her head, not sure how much she believed the whole thing about her and Katherine, but this was more important right now. “You were trying to do something good. Yeah, it ended up not going so well, but your heart was in the right place.”

“But I should have known better,” Damon told her. “Stefan was right. Every time I try to do something good someone pays for it. Usually him. I tried to get him back in my life back in nineteen twelve and tried to teach him to control the bloodlust instead of letting it control him and it ended up sending him on a decade long ripper binge. In forty two it was the same thing. I tried to get back in his life, but the fact that I was drinking human blood almost sent him off the edge again and I had no choice but to walk away for his own good. In ninety four…well that doesn’t even bear mentioning. Let’s just say, that nothing good ever comes from me being good.”

“That’s stupid, Damon,” Elena said bluntly. “You can’t tell me that those are the only times in your life that you’ve ever done something good. I’ve seen you do plenty of good in the time I’ve known you.” 

“You mean like compelling away Jeremy’s suffering that he now hates you for? Or rescuing Stefan from the horde of vampires that sent him off the deep end again and got the vampires riled up? Or saving you from your car accident just to walk us into an ambush? Or…”

Elena put a finger over his lips to stop him from talking. “/I/ am the one who asked you to compel Jeremy. That’s on me as is the fact that he hates me for it. Stefan went off the deep end because I had to feed him my blood to save his life. Not because of anything you did. The vampires were already riled up which was why they took Stefan in the first place. And I’m glad that you rescued me from the car accident. Ambush and all, and you know why? That was the first time since my parent’s died that I actually remembered what it was like to have fun. You did that. Brought me out of my shell. Reminded me how to live. You don’t know how much that means to me.”

“Still…”

“Still, nothing. Things never go the way we plan them. Sometimes good things turn out bad and bad things turn out good. That’s just life. Just because Stefan is being a brat and blaming you doesn’t mean you should blame yourself. Don’t let him get to you like that.” 

Damon sighed heavily. “Maybe you’re right.”

“I /know/ I’m right,” she said confidently. 

Damon huffed amusedly. “Now who has all the answers?” he teased, referencing their first meeting that she now remembered. 

“Well I’ve been around a while. Learned a few things,” she grinned.

Damon barked a laugh and leaned over for a quick kiss. “You are precious.” 

“Can we get back to the Katherine thing now?” she asked worriedly. 

“What about it?” Damon asked. 

“I just…find it hard to believe that you spend a hundred and forty five years chasing her and now suddenly, you’ve known me for a few months and…you know,” she shrugged. 

Damon snorted. “Clearly you underestimate just how incredible you are.” 

“Damon…” she sighed. She didn’t need jokes or platitudes here. She needed to understand. Not be pushed aside. 

“Okay, yes. I admit that when we first met, it was your resemblance to Katherine that drew me in, but you wanna know the first time I really saw /you/?” 

“Please,” she said hopefully. 

“We were sitting in your kitchen, folding napkins, and you stopped and looked at me. You told me you were sorry about Katherine and that I lost her too.” 

“What does that…”

Damon just continued, knowing he was about to answer her question anyway. “See, Katherine didn’t know the meaning of the word empathy. The entire concept was nothing but a ridiculous human weakness to her. She didn’t care about anyone but herself, and even though at that time I thought that I was an exception to that, she still never would have gone that far.”

“That’s why you tried to kiss me the next day?” Elena asked. 

“Yes. And when you slapped me for it…rightfully so,” he added before she could apologize. “Which just made it even more clear how different you were. Whether she liked me or not, Katherine would have played along just to use it against me later.” 

“So it’s just that I’m different than Katherine?” Elena asked worriedly. She didn’t really want it like that either. She didn’t want to be related to Katherine in /any/ way. 

“No. Not at all. That’s just when I started seeing you as separate people. My feelings for you are all about /you/. The stubborn righteous human that went toe to toe with a vampire over what was right and dared me to kill her for it. Who had the guts to actually slap me again, even after you knew I was a vampire. Who still managed to see something worth saving in me despite everything.” 

“You are worth saving, Damon. You always have been. Even when you weren’t acting like it,” she told him. 

“And real kicker…the moment I started falling for you, though I would have denied it at the time…was in Atlanta.” 

“Because I was being fun?” she guessed with a chuckle. 

“No, though I did enjoy that. But after that…when that vampire attacked…you fought for me. I could see how scared you were. I wouldn’t have blamed you for running. Hell, I /wanted/ you to run. I couldn’t think of a worse way to die than knowing that I was taking you with me. But you didn’t. You knew that he could kill you in a heartbeat, but you still fought…for me. No one had ever done that before. Even back when I was human. Even when I was a kid and my father would beat me half to death and burn me with his cigars and…even my own mother turned a blind eye. Even my brother just sat there and let me take all the punishments, even when I was taking the blame for him. No one ever fought for me before…until you…you saved my life that day and you have no idea how much that meant to me.” 

Elena smiled through her tears, both of sadness and happiness. Hearing all that broke her heart that he ever had cause to feel that way and also finally convinced her that it was her that he loved and not the ghost of Katherine. She moved closer to him and leaned against his side, and when his arm wrapped around her, she laid her head on his shoulder. When he turned to kiss her head and bury his face in her hair, she whispered, “And I’ll always fight for you, Damon. Because you /are/ worth it.” 

Damon felt the tears welling up in his own eyes at that, but they didn’t fall. “You want to know the moment that I knew that you were my life? That I would do anything and everything for you?” 

“When?” she asked curiously. 

“When I saw you coming down the stairs at the Miss Mystic pageant. It felt like the entire world stopped around me and you were all that existed. I felt bad about it, but I was so glad that Stefan wasn’t there because it gave me the chance to step in. Even if that one dance was all I ever got…it was worth it. Just to hold you in my arms for that few minutes. The chance to exist in that little bubble, where everything else just fell away, and it was just you and me…” Damon trailed off, not really sure how to put what he felt into words, but judging by the lips that met his, he didn’t really need to. She understood.


	5. Another Jenna Interlude

Jenna’s eyebrows raised as Damon described his evening with his ex. She had been under the impression that she was dead. Or maybe that was just a ‘vampire cover story’. That would make sense. If she was back in town though…that didn’t bode well. She wondered how Elena was taking the news when she heard Elena tell him that she might look like Katherine but she wasn’t Katherine and she wondered what the hell that meant. They couldn’t look /that/ much alike, could they? Hearing what she told Damon though made her swell with sympathy. If Elena really had told told him that she would never want him and then Katherine came along and told him that…it wasn’t surprising that he had gotten smashed, though he seemed to be sobering up quite a bit already. Must be vampire thing. 

She felt even worse for him when he started talking about how doing good always went so wrong. At least she had some idea now of how old he was. Or at least the fact that he was very old. She wasn’t sure how long before, but now she knew that he’d been around before nineteen twelve. She made a mental note to ask about the whole bloodlust and ripper binge thing as the conversation continued. As Damon started listing the things that he’d tried to do good, but ended up going bad, she realized just how much of Elena’s life she had missed being in the dark. That alone made her not feel as bad for eavesdropping. These were things that, as her guardian, she should know. Elena’s rebuttals gave her even more information. 

Learning that Damon had compelled away Jeremy’s suffering made his drastic turnaround from a few months ago make more sense and while she could see Elena’s point, she still disagreed and intended to talk to Elena about that too. The idea that Elena had been caught in a vampire ambush scared the hell out of her, but she was still grateful to Damon for taking her and reminding her how to have fun. At least now she knew where they were during the two days she disappeared. She completely agreed with Elena that he shouldn’t let Stefan get to him and start blaming himself and she wondered when Elena got so wise. 

Then she got a little more insight into Damon’s age. A hundred and forty five years chasing his ex. That was huge. She had to agree with Elena that it was a little hard to believe that he could just switch gears so easily, but hearing what she’d said to him, she didn’t doubt that he’d had plenty of reason to give up on Katherine. The fact that it had taken him that long to realize that said a lot about his loyalty as far as she was concerned. Hearing more about Katherine from the point of view even before Damon had given up on her made Jenna hate her almost as much as they did. She sounded like a real piece of work. 

The more he talked the more Jenna realized that any fears were unfounded. Damon definitely saw Elena for herself and she could easily imagine her headstrong niece standing up to a vampire or anyone else for that matter if she thought she was in the right. Just as much as she could imagine her fighting for him against someone else trying to hurt him. Hearing that no one else ever had broke her heart though. To hear that even as a child he’d had to go through all that alone made her want to go back in time and kill his father herself. And his mother while she was at it for never doing anything about it. 

When she heard Damon describe what happened at the pageant, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Damon loved Elena with everything he had. And it was painfully obvious that when he loved, he loved completely and permanently. If someone like Katherine could hold his heart for so long, how much longer would Elena hold it? She suddenly felt bad for her feelings at the pageant. How she hated the idea of Elena and Damon together. He had been so happy, and she was hating him for it. When she heard the clear signs of kissing, she almost went in and broke it up, but then they started talking again.


	6. Chapter 6

Once the kiss broke, they settled more comfortably on the bed, leaning back against the headboard with Elena mostly leaning against Damon as his arms wrapped around her and his head rested on hers. “I don’t know if you realize what else that compulsion did,” she broached the subject. 

“What do you mean?” Damon asked worriedly. 

“I’m sure you noticed that I was usually nicer to you when Stefan wasn’t around?” she asked. When he nodded, she explained. “It made me always take his side. Especially against you. It made me want to make him happy.”

“See that’s what I don’t get. Why would it do that? I mean…it was about /you/ getting what you wanted. Why would it send you into his arms at all, much less do that?” 

“I’ve been trying to figure that out all night, and I think I have a theory,” Elena said hesitantly. 

“I’m all ears,” Damon chuckled. 

“Because he was the first vampire that I met after that so the compulsion latched onto him then,” Elena told him. 

“What would him being a vampire have to do with it?” Damon asked confused. 

“Because you were right that night. When you guessed what I wanted. A love that consumes me…vampires have enhanced emotions that can easily be all consuming. Passion…again even better as a vampire from what I understand. Adventure…what’s more adventurous than vampirism. And even a little danger…that part’s pretty obvious.”

“You can have all that as a human too,” Damon pointed out. 

“I know,” Elena said. “I already have most of it anyway,” she admitted with a blush, the closest she’d come to saying the words out loud. She knew that she needed to and she would by the time he left, but she didn’t want to get side-tracked right now. “But it could still be so much more. Don’t you want me to be a vampire?” she finished in confusion. 

“Baby, forever with you sounds like a dream come true for me, but I said it then and I mean it even more now…I want you to have everything you want out of life. That’s the most important thing to me. And if you become a vampire there is so much you’ll miss out on.”

“Like what?” Elena asked curiously. 

“Like marriage, kids, pets, a normal life. The whole white picket fence dream.”

“I know you said that vampries can’t procreate so I get the kids part but the rest…”

“Getting married as a vampire is complicated. There is so much red tape and different computer systems and databases that are backed up and store the information. Getting IDs is pretty simple. Fake IDs are a dime a dozen, but something good enough to fool all those computer systems is not and electronics can’t be compelled. Hell, just a valid social security number would be all but impossible. I mean, sure, we could have a ceremony and all, we could consider ourselves married, we could even get fake ids to match, but it would never be legal.” 

“Okay, the things you said that vampires /can/ have…that’s the important part. The legalities of it are kinda pointless. Who cares if a computer or a bureaucrat says you’re married?” 

Damon couldn’t help but smile a bit at that. He didn’t disagree, but he knew how important things like that could be to some people. Instead he just moved on. “As far as a normal life goes…we don’t age and that gets suspicious after a while. Getting close to humans…having jobs, and friends, and all that…you just have to leave it all behind sooner rather than later and cut all contact. It’s easier to just not get attached.” 

“Yeah, I can see that,” Elena nodded. “And you definitely wouldn’t want to bring too many humans in on the secret.” 

“Exactly,” Damon nodded. “Plus we tend to be very moody and even unstable at times. Part of the whole enhanced emotions thing you mentioned. Yeah the good stuff is even better, but it’s very much a double edged sword.” 

“What’s your least favorite thing about being a vampire?” Elena asked him. 

“The loneliness,” Damon told her in a rare moment of honesty. If she was even considering this then she needed to know the good and the bad. “Knowing that no matter what happens, I’ll never be able to have stable friends or even a family…I wanted that once, you know. I used to dream of being married one day, having two or three kids, living on the old Salvatore estate and hopefully being a better Dad than mine was…”

“You would be a great Dad,” Elena told him. 

Damon shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t be. Not as a vampire. Those moods and instability I mentioned, remember? You’ve seen hints of what my temper is like.”

“I have. And I’ve also seen you restrain it. You would never even hurt me, much less your kids,” she pointed out.

“You’re right. I would never physically harm you or any children period. Mine or not. But there are a lot of other ways to hurt people. Especially emotionally fragile children,” Damon argued. 

“You make a valid point,” Elena admitted. “But I still think you’d be better than you think…What’s your favorite part of being a vampire?” she asked the opposite question. 

“The freedom,” Damon said with a smile. “You can go anywhere, do anything, no rules, no restrictions. You can drive two hundred miles an hour with the top down. You can run so fast and jump so high it feels like you’re flying. No one can tell you what to do or where to go or how to live. Every day is like a new adventure that you can explore however you want.” 

Elena grinned and snuggled deeper into his arms. “That sounds nice,” she said wistfully. “Does it make for the things you can’t have?” 

“For me? Yes. Most of the time. But it doesn’t for everyone. It might not for you,” Damon told her. 

“I get it,” Elena told him. “I won’t make any hasty decisions.”

“I thought you didn’t want to be a vampire anyway?” Damon asked curiously. He was sure he remembered that at some point. 

“No, Stefan didn’t want me to be one. No one ever asked what I wanted,” Elena pointed out. 

“You seemed pretty horrified at the idea that night,” Damon pointed out. 

“I was horrified at the idea of it being forced on me without my permission,” Elena told him. “At the time I had no idea what I wanted. I still don’t /know/ exactly, but I am leaning more towards vampirism. Like I said though, I won’t make a hasty decision and I’ll get all the information and really think about what I want before I decide.”

“That’s all I can ask for, and I will support you and be by your side no matter what decision you make,” Damon promised. 

“Even if it means watching me grow old and die?” Elena asked, looking up at him, trying to fish for how serious he was about this whole thing. 

“Even then,” Damon promised. “No matter how long or short you choose your life to be, the rest of mine will be spent loving you. In any way you’ll let me.” 

“I-I love you, Damon,” she breathed out. “I mean…I know it probably seems crazy and way too fast since Stefan and I have only been broken up for a couple hours and I just now got free of the compulsion, but…”

Damon pressed a short soft kiss to her lips. “Shh. I know, Elena. I knew as soon as you told me what else the compulsion was doing to you.”

“How?” she asked curiously. 

“Because it meant that every time you were nice to me…every time you fought for me…every time you gave me the benefit of the doubt…that was you fighting the compulsion. Human’s can’t fight a vampire’s compulsion like that except in cases of extreme emotions. The strongest of emotions. Blind rage, overwhelming despair, and intense love. The love was the only one that fit.” 

“I think I would have been as sure as you were at the pageant if not for the compulsion,” she told him with a smile. 

“I like to think so,” he leaned his forehead against hers. “Dancing with you was one of the highlights of my life.”

“Well now you can dance with me anytime you want,” she said softly. Damon grinned and gave her a quick kiss before getting up from the bed and holding his hand out to her. She chuckled and took his hand even as she said, “I don’t think there’s enough room in here.” 

“Hmm. You might be right. Come here,” he pulled her over to the window. 

“Damon, I can’t jump out the window. I’d break my legs,” she laughed. 

“Do you trust me?” he asked with a glint in his eyes. 

“Absolutely,” she assured him, and he picked her up in his arms in a bridal carry and jumped out the window, absorbing the landing with a crouch before setting her down in the backyard. 

“Now that we have some room,” he held out his hand again. “May I have this dance?” Elena giggled and put her hand in his. He pulled her close and placed her hand on his shoulder as he took her other hand and he started to hum the music as they danced around the yard cheek to cheek.


	7. Probably the last Jenna Interlude

Jenna was a little worried when Elena mentioned that the compulsion did something else, and she was horrified to realize what it had done. That it had essentially made her a slave to Stefan. It definitely explained the changes she’d seen in Elena the last few months. How, despite moving on, she still never really got back to being herself. How she still seemed more withdrawn and even a little more judgmental than she was before. She was pulling from Stefan’s demeanor. She stopped worrying as much about other people and focused all her attention on Stefan. She had thought at the time that it was just a young love thing. That can happen, but apparently it was so much worse and she felt bad for never trying to intervene. She knew that she couldn’t have done anything about it though, even if she had known which she hadn’t. 

Learning that Elena was considering being a vampire first sent a thrill of fear through her. Not fear of Elena, but fear of losing her, but she forced herself to keep listening. To learn it all and then she could talk to her about it once she had time to process. She smiled when Elena mentioned the things that Damon guessed she wanted out of life. The pre-accident Elena definitely would have wanted all those things. Hell, the first two she wanted just as badly herself. She could do without the adventure and danger though. Well, maybe a little adventure, but not like they were talking about. 

Jenna was glad that Damon was talking about everything that she would miss out on being a vampire and wondered how much he felt like he was missing out on. She had to agree with Elena on the marriage thing though. The ‘paper’ was the least important part. It hurt her that Elena wouldn’t be able to have kids if she did this, but she knew that Elena had never been sold on the idea of kids in the first place. Hearing how much Damon had wished for them was surprising to her. He didn’t really seem like the type, but learning why it wouldn’t be a good idea made her realize that he’d put that particular dream away a long time ago. 

She hadn’t realized before this conversation that vampires had enhanced emotions. It definitely made some things make more sense. Like everything that had concerned her about Damon in the past. He had always seemed almost bipolar. One day he’d be sweet and fun and the next time she saw him he would be standoffish and cold. One thing that she did see, now that she was paying attention, was how he /always/ was with Elena. No matter his mood, even when he was clearly pissy and probably on the verge of killing someone now that she knew he was a vampire…he had always been so careful with Elena. She was inclined to agree with Elena in that he would be better with kids than he thought, but completely understood him not wanting to take the risk. 

When Jenna heard him explaining what he liked about being a vampire, she could definitely see how it would appeal to some people. It didn’t really appeal to her personally. She liked stability. Having something she could count on. People she could count on. Routine. But that kind of freedom was all some people ever dreamed of. She was glad that Elena wasn’t going to make a hasty decision and she was more glad that Damon wasn’t pushing her towards one. It would be so easy for him to take advantage right now and get her by his side forever, but the fact that he was more concerned with her happiness than his own said a lot. She did make another mental note to ask what ‘night’ someone had tried to force her to be a vampire. 

When Elena told Damon that she loved him, Jenna agreed with her that it was too soon. Right up until Damon explained how he’d known. She’d heard stories about how complete vampire compulsions could be. How impossible they were to fight against. If her love for him was strong enough for her to fight it that much, then there was no doubt in Jenna’s mind that they would be forever. However long that lasted for Elena. 

She almost snorted when she heard Elena talking about jumping out the window. Damon did realize there were perfectly good stairs in the house, didn’t he? Apparently not because it was suddenly quiet over there and she assumed that the question about trust was him getting her to jump with him. She moved to the window and looked out, just to make sure Elena was okay, and smiled at the sight of them dancing under the moonlight in the backyard to no music. Anyone who doubted their love for each other just needed one look at that to know otherwise. 

She decided to give them a bit of time before breaking it up. It was almost two am after all. She had been more than patient. She went to take a shower and get ready for bed herself before going downstairs and opening the back door. “Elena, it’s time to say goodnight. It’s late.” 

Elena blushed brightly and nodded, stepping away from Damon. When Jenna closed the door, Damon leaned down and kissed Elena soft and slow. “Goodnight, Elena.” 

“Goodnight, Damon,” she smiled happily. “I love you.” 

“I love you too,” he grinned, giving her one more quick kiss before he disappeared into the trees.

Elena went into the house and said, “Aunt Jenna, I can explain…”

Jenna cut her off with a hug. “It’s fine. We’ll talk tomorrow. I think we could both use a good night’s sleep.”


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, it was closer to lunchtime by the time Elena stumbled out of bed and it seemed that Jenna hadn’t been up long either because she was still sitting at the table with a cup of coffee when Elena joined her a little nervously. “About last night…” Elena started. 

“I know. I heard everything,” Jenna admitted. 

“You heard…what?” Elena asked worriedly. 

“Yep. Every word. Your door was open and your voices carry,” Jenna smirked. “When exactly were you going to tell me that you’ve been consorting with vampires?” 

“You know?” Elena asked wide-eyed. “How do you know about vampires?”

Jenna rolled her eyes. “My sister was on the council and was a vampire hunter. You really think she wouldn’t tell me what to be careful of?” 

“She never told me,” Elena pointed out. 

“Because by the time you were old enough the threat had died down. You were just a baby the last time the council went on high alert. There was a slaughter or something back in the nineties. I was just barely a teenager, but old enough for that particular talk.”

“But you’re not on the council now,” Elena said nervously. 

“No. I’m not. I was offered the Gilbert seat after your parents and all, but I turned it down. I can’t abide the idea of slaughtering an entire race of beings just because of what they are,” Jenna explained. 

Elena breathed a sigh of relief at that part. “So…does that mean you’re okay with me and Damon?” 

“For the most part, yes,” Jenna told her. “I trust your judgment, Elena, and if you think he’s a good guy then I believe you.”

“I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call him a ‘good’ guy,” Elena half joked. “But he’s definitely not a ‘bad’ guy.”

Jenna chuckled. “I don’t think there’s any such thing as a true ‘good’ guy. Vampire OR human. But you know what I meant. I do have some questions though.” 

“Okay. I’ll answer what I can,” Elena promised. 

“There have been a lot of vampire attacks recently,” Jenna said more than asked, waiting for her to fill in the blanks. 

“Damon hasn’t attacked anyone in a long time,” Elena assured her, intentionally being vague about how long, long was. “He’s even been at the forefront of protecting the town from other vampires.”

“Was that what happened the other night at the festivities? I saw the deputies injecting people and taking them away.

“Yeah. Those were vampires. There were like twenty of them or something that wanted revenge on the founding families and were going to kill them all that night.”

“And Damon helped?” Jenna asked. 

“Not then, exactly,” Elena said with a wince. “He’d tried to stop them and even killed half a dozen at least before that night. That night he got caught with the rest of them. We barely managed to save him.” 

“So the council knows what he is now?” Jenna asked worriedly. 

“No. Just Uncle John knows, but he’s always known. Used it to blackmail Damon a couple times and then he took Damon down himself when the device went off. No one else knows,” Elena told her. “At least that I know of.”

“And Stefan? How did he get out of it?” Jenna asked. 

“Ric helped me and Stefan down to hide in the subway before we could get caught,” Jenna told her. 

“Ric knows?” Jenna asked with raised eyebrows. 

“Yeah. He’s been a vampire hunter since what happened with Isobel. He saw Damon take her and started hunting him.”

“Wait a sec…You’re telling me that Damon killed your birth mother?!” 

“No, no, no. Ric thought he did, but he just turned her. Because she wanted to be turned. She hunted him down and asked him to turn her so he did,” Elena explained. “We just recently found out she was alive ourselves, but weren’t sure how to explain it to you without the whole vampire issue coming up since we didn’t know you knew.” 

“Does that mean that you’ve met your birth mother?” Jenna asked excitedly. 

“Unfortunately,” Elena winced. At Jenna’s curious look, she explained. “She’s not the good kind of vampire. She’s turned her humanity off.”

“Vampires can do that?” Jenna asked worriedly. 

“Yeah,” Elena nodded. “See vampires have their emotions enhanced by a lot, and it can get overwhelming and a lot of them find it easier to turn them off completely rather than try and cope with it, which is probably why they have the ability in the first place. Kind of like a survival instinct type thing.” 

“That makes sense,” Jenna nodded, horrified at the implications, but glad that Damon and even Stefan didn’t seem to have his humanity off. She decided to move on to a different subject. “I heard you talking about you looking like Katherine?” 

“Yeah. It’s totally freaky, but somehow we look exactly alike. Like some kind of doppelganger effect or something. Neither Damon nor Stefan know how, but that is how I found out I was adopted. Stefan went digging and learned that much and we think that Isobel must have been descended from Katherine back when she was human or something, but that’s about all we have on that.” 

“That does sound freaky. And if I didn’t know better, I would be very worried that Damon only loved you for that. I’m still not convinced that Stefan didn’t though,” Jenna said. 

“But you’re convinced that Damon doesn’t?” Elena asked hopefully. She believed him for the most part, but she’d be lying if she said that she didn’t have any doubts. 

“Completely convinced,” Jenna assured her, fully understanding why she was asking. “I heard everything he said, and the emotion in his voice. There’s no chance that he sees you as anything but yourself.”

Elena breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, good. I mean I thought so too but…”

“Sometimes it helps to have the opinion of an unbiased observer. I understand,” Jenna told her. “What was that whole thing about bloodlust and ripper binges about?” 

Elena winced. “Yeah, see, Stefan has this problem with human blood. It’s kinda like an addiction for him. More so than other vampires. He loses all control, which is why he usually only drinks animal blood. Apparently it’s really nasty and not particularly healthy, but it’s the only way he can survive without slaughtering anyone in sight.”

“So the night of the pageant…”

“He fell off the wagon and yes…that’s what happened to Amber. Damon stopped him from killing her and we got him locked up and…kinda…detoxed, I guess would be the best way to put it,” Elena explained. 

Jenna nodded. She was even more glad that Elena had gotten out of that relationship now. Living with an addict was never easy. Someone whose addiction turned them into a mass murderer even less. “Now…what’s this about compelling Jeremy?” 

“Vickie got turned into a vampire. She attacked at the Halloween carnival at school. She almost killed both Jeremy and me before Stefan killed her to protect us. Jeremy was so broken…and so soon after mom and dad…I just couldn’t see him that way, so I asked Damon to help.” 

“I see,” Jenna nodded. “Well your heart was in the right place, but I hope you understand after the mess you just found yourself in, how even well-meaning compulsions can turn bad.” 

“I know,” Elena sighed sadly. 

Jenna reached over and took her hand. “Honey, I get how getting swept up in this whole new world of possibilities can make you lose touch with reality, but the easy way isn’t always the right way. Jeremy needs to be able to get past things the normal way. With time and the support and understanding of his family.” 

“You’re right,” Elena agreed after a moment. “I’ll get Damon to undo it. If that’s what Jeremy wants.” 

“Now…about you becoming a vampire…” Elena winced, waiting for a diatribe on the subject, but she didn’t get one. “As long as you promise me to think long and hard about what you want, I’ll support your choice.” 

“I will. I don’t want to end up like Isobel and regretting it either,” Elena assured her. 

“Okay. Good,” Jenna said relieved. She knew that Elena had already promised Damon that, but she needed to hear it for herself. She needed that promise too. “Now when did someone try to force you to become a vampire and why?” 

Elena winced again, really not wanting to explain this story, but knowing that Jenna wouldn’t let her get out of it. “A few weeks before Christmas, Damon was still trying to rescue Katherine, thinking that she’d been locked in a tomb and starved for the last century and a half. Stefan promised to help him, but was really going behind his back to stop him and I was helping Stefan. I had promised Damon that he could trust us right before he caught us about to burn the spellbook that could get her back and he was so hurt. He used me as a hostage to get the book back, forcing me to drink his blood.”

“Okay, as much as I hate the idea of him using you as a hostage, that part I get…but why the blood? Why not just threaten to kill you or something?” 

“Because Stefan knew that he could never kill me. Told him as much when Damon tried it. But turning me…that Stefan bought. I don’t honestly think Damon would have done it anyway, but the important thing was that Stefan did. And I /had/ just betrayed Damon in the worst way so…”

“I don’t think he would have done it either…this was after your trip to Atlanta that you never told me about right?” Elena nodded. “Then no. He definitely wouldn’t have done it. And I get how he was desperate and it was the only option. That doesn’t mean that I like it, of course, but if you can get over it, so can I.” 

“Thanks, Aunt Jenna,” Elena said relieved. 

“Now…just one more thing I’d like to mention,” Jenna said with an amused smirk. 

“What?”

“We do have perfectly good stairs in this house and windows are not exits,” she chuckled, pulling a laugh from Elena too.


	9. Chapter 9

It wasn’t long after that when the doorbell rang, and Jenna motioned Elena to stay, having a decent idea who it was, and went to answer the door. When she opened it, she grinned at him. “Hey, will you look at that? It looks like he’s figured out how to use doors,” she teased. 

Damon looked completely confused, but played along. “Yes, they are a marvelous invention aren’t they?” 

Elena laughed. “She overheard us last night. Including the window part,” she explained from the doorway. 

“I…see…” Damon said carefully, wondering what all she overheard. 

“Aww, Elena,” Jenna said disappointed. “I was enjoying that constipated expression on his face. Hey, can vampires even /get/ constipated?” 

Elena burst into laughter, completely doubled over at that question, though in all honesty it wasn’t much stupider than some of the questions she’d asked. Damon just sputtered for a moment, both at the question itself and the fact that Jenna apparently knew he was a vampire and was actually teasing him over it. This was well beyond anything he had ever experienced. “You’re not serious,” he eventually managed to say. 

“No, not really,” Jenna laughed. “I mean, it is a curiosity with the whole liquid diet thing, but I don’t really care enough about vampire bathroom habits to actually want an answer.” 

Damon looked at Elena nervously as she was managing to get her laughter under control. “Should I be compelling here?” he asked her. 

“No, you most definitely should not,” Jenna said firmly. 

Damon just kept looking at Elena who shook her head. “No, she’s cool with it. She’s known about vampires all along apparently but didn’t know that you and Stefan were vampires until last night.”

“Yes and I’ve spent most of the morning grilling her, and now it’s your turn,” Jenna grinned. 

Only the fact that Damon could tell it was all in good fun kept him from going on the defensive, so he just shrugged and sat down, smiling brightly when Elena plopped into his lap and he wrapped his arms around her, eagerly returning her kiss. “So what do you want to know?” Damon asked Jenna afterwards. 

“First of all, I want to say that I understand that the whole holding her hostage and threatening to turn her thing is in the past and that you had your reasons, but it will NOT be repeated. Understood?” Jenna said sternly. 

“I would never do that again,” Damon assured her. “No matter what.” 

“Good,” Jenna nodded. “Now…how old do people think you are?” 

“Twenty one,” Damon told her. “When I decided to stick around for a while I figured starting younger was better, but I wasn’t about to not be able to drink.”

“Okay…in that case…you will need to keep in mind that Elena is only seventeen and there are laws…”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind waiting until her birthday,” he said, clearly having no issues talking about the subject of sex even though Elena buried her face in his neck in embarrassment. 

“You don’t?” Elena still managed to ask. 

Damon lifted her head up to look at her. “Baby, I once spent almost fifty years celibate waiting for someone without even a fraction of your worth. For you, I would wait forever.” Elena blushed brightly again, but grinned at him and rewarded him with a kiss. 

“Good. That definitely makes things easier,” Jenna said with a slight blush of her own. She didn’t intend to talk about things so bluntly, but at least it was all out in the open. “Out of curiosity, how old were you when you became a vampire and when was that?” 

“I was twenty-five and was turned in eighteen sixty four,” Damon told her. 

“And Stefan?” she asked. 

“He was turned at the same time and had just turned seventeen.” 

“Did he really leave town?” Jenna asked. 

“Well when I got back last night all his stuff and his car was gone, so I’m assuming so,” Damon shrugged sadly. 

“Do your maturity levels get stuck when you turn or something?” Jenna asked. 

Elena snorted a laugh and even Damon chuckled. “Sometimes it does seem that way, but I can’t say for sure. Why?” 

“Because that was a pure spoiled teenager tantrum if I’ve ever heard one. I would think that someone who was…” she did some quick math in her head. “A hundred and sixty three years old, would be beyond that.”

Damon shrugged. “Stefan has always been that way. And I guess I haven’t always made things easy on him…”

“Don’t even start that. I know I told you that before, but I plead insanity due to compulsion. His actions are not your fault,” Elena told him. 

Damon snorted amusedly. “Insanity due to compulsion?” 

Jenna laughed heartily at that as Elena shrugged. “Can you think of a better way to put it?” 

Before anything else could be said, the doorbell rang again. Jenna got up to answer it. “Sheriff. What can we do for you?” 

Damon motioned Elena off his lap and she moved a respectable distance away as the sheriff said, “I was hoping I could talk to Elena for a few minutes?” They didn’t intend to keep their relationship secret for long, but two days after she and Stefan were known to be together and the day after he suspiciously skipped town was the worst time for it to be known. 

Jenna looked back to make sure they were separated before she said, “Sure. Come on in.” 

Damon could immediately tell that Liz was barely holding it together. She was the closest thing he had to a best friend. He got up and went to her side. “Liz? What’s wrong? Is everything okay? Is it Caroline?”

“Damon, I’m glad you’re here,” she said relieved. “Though I hope to god I don’t end up needing your expertise on this one.” 

“On what?” Damon asked gently. 

“Caroline is missing. She left the hospital sometime last night,” the sheriff told them before looking at Elena. “Have you heard anything from her?” 

“I haven’t checked my phone today. Let me go get it,” Elena said worriedly, rushing up the stairs. Damon met her when she came back down and she showed him the message and he winced as Elena explained to Liz. “I got a text message. She left town with Stefan.” 

“She what?” Liz asked in shock, holding out her hand for the phone and Elena showed it to her, glad that Caroline had apparently gotten Stefan to help her with the wording to be discreet enough to pass inspection, but she hated what it implied. “Stefan left town too?” Liz asked Damon. 

“Yeah. Last night,” he told her. 

“Aren’t you his guardian?” 

“He turned eighteen in November,” Damon told her. “I couldn’t legally stop him.” Not that he would have of course, but it fit the story. 

“Well you can’t, but now he’s kidnapped my seventeen year old daughter,” Liz said angrily. 

Damon knew that he had to defuse this fast. He reached out and took her shoulders gently. “I understand where you’re coming from, Liz. Believe me. But I promise you that Stefan would never take her anywhere against her will. And he will never hurt her. I’m asking you…please…for my sake…let this go. Her birthday is only a few months away anyway.” 

Liz took a few deep breaths for calm and actually considered Damon’s words. He was right that in a few months she would be free to do whatever she wanted and bringing her home against her will now would be pointless because she would just turn around and leave again. And Damon did so much for this town and asked for nothing in return, but now he was asking her not to press charges against his brother. “I want to talk to her. To verify that she left of her own free will. If she didn’t, then your brother or not…I will press kidnapping charges. No matter how much I value our friendship, she is my daughter.” 

“That’s perfectly fair,” Damon assured her. “But when you do confirm that she left willingly.”

“I will just list her as a runaway,” Liz told him. That was the best she could do. She knew that no one would waste resources on a runaway that was only four months away from eighteen, but she couldn’t live with herself if she did nothing. 

Damon nodded and took out his phone and called Stefan. It rang once and went straight to voicemail. “Listen, Stef. I know you’re pissed at me and all right now and I get it. But you need to call me back. Now. Or at least get Caroline to call her mother before things get out of hand here.” 

“I’ll try Caroline,” Elena offered, but it didn’t even ring before going to voicemail. “Her phone must be dead. I could…try Stefan myself?” 

Damon shook his head. “No, I will from your phone. You don’t need to deal with that,” he said holding out his hand for it. 

“What actually happened there?” Liz asked. “Caroline’s message said that you and Stefan broke up?” 

“Yeah, it’s kind of a long story, but there was a big fight and Damon got dragged into it and took my side, so now Stefan is pissed at both of us which is why he left town,” Elena explained as Damon tried to call Stefan. “I don’t know why he took Caroline with him,” she lied. If the text message meant what she thought it did, then Caroline was a new vampire who would need a little handholding for a while. 

“No luck,” Damon said regretfully, handing Elena her phone back. They talked for a little longer before Damon’s phone rang. “It’s Stefan.” When he answered, they all heard one side of the conversation. “Yeah, I’m with the sheriff now…she’s talking kidnapping charges unless she can talk to her daughter…I don’t care if blondie wants to talk to her or not, put her ass on the phone,” he snapped. “Thank you,” he finished as he handed the phone to Liz. 

There was a brief tear-filled conversation that everyone did their best not to pay attention to, giving mother and daughter their privacy, before Liz handed Damon his phone back. “Thank you, Damon. I appreciate your help.”

“Anytime, Liz. You know that. If you need anything else,” Damon assured her, reaching a hand to her shoulder. She gave him a sad smile and reached up to squeeze his hand in thanks before leaving. 

Once she was gone, Elena asked Damon, “Did that text mean what I think it meant? Is Caroline a vampire now?” 

“Yeah. Apparently Katherine snuck in and killed her after I healed her,” Damon explained. “Yet another thing Stefan blames me for.”

“What? She would have died if you hadn’t healed her. You just did what you were asked,” Elena pointed out. 

“You can heal people?” Jenna asked confused. 

“Vampire blood heals any injury and most illnesses in humans,” Damon told Jenna. “When Caroline was dying, Bonnie asked me to save her so I did. Then when Katherine killed her, my blood was still in her system which made her a vampire. According to Stefan, I’m not at all suited to helping a new vampire find their way, so he took her with him so that he could do it right and take care of her.” 

“Ugh, he is so frustrating,” Elena said in irritation as she grabbed Damon in a hug, burying her face in his chest for comfort. 

Damon chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her head. “It’s fine, Elena. I’d rather avoid the responsibility anyway.” 

“Well…now that all the drama is over…are you staying for lunch, Damon?” Jenna asked, trying to find something to do to cut the tension. 

“Sure,” Damon agreed, and went to help in the kitchen. 

“You know…this is why I like you, Damon. You never hesitate to help out,” Jenna chuckled. 

“Just don’t spread it around. Wouldn’t want to hurt my reputation and all,” Damon joked.


End file.
